Facebook hits 175 million user mark

A little more than a month after announcing it had 150 million active users, Facebook has reached 175 million active users--the statistic the social-networking site prefers to use, rather than registered accounts overall.

Dave Morin, who runs Facebook's application platform team, announced the milestone Friday evening on his Twitter/FriendFeed. Facebook reached 150 million just more than two months after reaching 120 million and about four months after reaching 100 million.

While Facebook got its start at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. in 2004, most of this recent growth is coming from outside the U.."This includes people in every continent--even Antarctica," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post last month. "If Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia, and Nigeria."

However, as we have pointed out before, server power is expensive, especially overseas. Facebook has raised a ton of venture capital, isreportedly hunting for more, and says it's in good financial shape. That comes back into question, however, if it's growing faster than it ever expected to.

Courtesy: cnet.com
February 15, 2009 10:30 AM PST
by Steven Musil